Rugby tour

Press, 2 May 1985, Page 20

Rugby tour

Sir, — Bert Walker should be thanked for disclosing the identity of thinking of the elderly who want to send a rugby team to South Africa, and the thinking of the elderly who are mindset in looking on the Soviet and the United States in terms of black and white. I strongly suspect that individually the members of the Rugby Union are so anti-Lange for his foreign policy that it was a factor in thwarting him by agreeing to the tour. I still think rugby is an excellent game for young males but cannot deny that it tends to breed a macho kind of conservative intolerance which must be eradicated if we are to avoid a worse fate than the take-over of South Africa by blacks in search of the same freedom to determine their own destiny that we have long enjoyed. — Yours, etc., VERNON WILKINSON. May 1, 1985.

Sir, — Rugby commentator, John Howson, was interviewed on Radio New Zealand this morning about the extent of racial integration in South African rugby. While admitting he did not know about the school and club levels, he had no hesitation in dismissing John Minto’s concern that “multi-racial” teams are picked for appearances sake. Howson then quoted Danie Craven as a more reliable source of information — hardly an unpje-

judiced observer. Today “The Press” item on a “Declaration of Intent” by South Africa, sporting organisations gives the lie to Howson’s assurances. The 10-point plan is just that: an attempt to improve on the situation as it is now. It is that statement of intent, and clearly not a description of the present reality in South Africa. It is the real and ugly world of apartheid which the All Blacks will be participating in. — Yours, etc., KAREN CRONIN. May 1, 1985.

Sir,—The rugby tour issue seems to have polarised into Left wing versus Right: Soviet versus the West. The ultimate aim of one faction is a Marxist republic in South Africa, and the other to prevent it. The genuinely concerned anti-apartheid demonstrators are being exploited to this aim. The oppression of the indigenous Bantu is of secondaiy consideration. There were no critical murmurs, to say nothing of demonstrations, against the Idi Amin regime, the massacre of the Matabele by Mgabwe, nor any other oppression of black by black. Such sentiments would not be anti-white and anti-West. Very few can condone the apartheid system as practised at present, so it is not so much being pro-tour as anti-anti-tour.—Yours, etc., R. H. BRETT. April 28, 1985.